The students of New Little Scholars High School in Hyderabad chose to address the issue of plastic use in their village. They organized a rally to educate the community about the harms of plastic and encourage the use of paper bags instead. The students taught women in the village to make paper bags, then worked to establish partnerships where the women could sell their bags to local shops. This created a small business for the women while reducing plastic use. Both the women and local leaders were pleased with the positive impact the students' project had on the environment and community.

1. For the people,
By the people
New Little Scholars High School, Hyderabad
Teacher Incharge: Shruti Kommineni
Student Co-ordinators: D.Niharika, T.Ravalika, Y.Mounica
Priya, J.Shiva, K.Yadagiri, D. Janaki Ram

2. OUR ISSUE: To ban the use of plastic and create an awareness
of it in the village. Also to create a small scale business for the
women in the village by teaching them how to make paper bags
and help them sell the bags to the shops in the near by towns
and villages.
WHY THIS ISSUE?
When the students were all gathered to discuss about the issue
they want to address, they came up with many issues but most
of them wanted to do something that could really help their
village and the people. A majority of them felt that despite the
strict rule by the government to ban plastic, most of the shops
and people in the village were still using it. So hence the whole
group decided to address this issue and change the place for a
better one.

3. Preparation:
Five students from class 7 were selected to be the main coordinators.
Each one of them was given a responsibility.
• D.Niharika: Coordinate with rest of the students of the class
• T.Ravalika: In charge of teaching the women in the village how to
make paper bags.
• Y.Mounica Priya: In charge of posters and banners for the rally
• J.Shiva: Responsible for the rally that was to be organized in the
village
• K.Yadagiri, D.Janaki Ram: Responsible for finding shops that are
interested in buying the paper bags and coordinating between the
women who make paper bags and the shops.

4. Initial work
The students started making posters and banners for the rally
and also started learning how to make paper bags to teach the
others in the village.

6. It was then time to bring about a change and make every
student say “I can”
Students of class 6-9th participated in a rally and went around the whole
village to create an awareness about the ill effects of using plastic and
to convince people to stop using plastic .

7. Time to spread the word…

9. We then went on to teach women how to make paper bags

10. Our next task was to convince the shop owners to stop using plastic and use
paper. Although this was not an easy task, lets see how our students did it.

11. The happy faces in the photos tell us that the children were
successful in making a few people change their mind and convince
them to not use plastic.
The students have successfully provided a small scale business to
a few women in the village who now work together in association
with Rural Technological Park to sell the bags made by them to
numerous stores in the city. The happiness of all the women made
the students believe that they can change something in the world
too.

12. This is what people had to say about the change…
It’s nice to see our children take up responsibility to change things in the
society. They have also taught us and shown us ways to earn some
money. I have something useful to do now apart from just sitting idle at
home the whole day while my husband and kids are away.
--- Padmalata, Mother of a student
The children taught us how important it is to address environmental
issues that are bad for the earth and us. It was really nice to see the
enthusiasm in every child to do something good for the society. Design
for change is one program that needs to be encouraged and spread
out. It gives every child and adult a platform to do something good and
help others
…Suryakala Reddy, Principal